BrainGazer - Visual Queries for Neurobiology Research

Stefan Bruckner, Veronika Šoltészová, Meister Eduard Gröller, Jiří Hladůvka, Katja Bühler, Jai Yu, Barry Dickson
BrainGazer - Visual Queries for Neurobiology Research
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 15(6):1497-1504, November 2009. [ Paper]
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Abstract

Neurobiology investigates how anatomical and physiological relationships in the nervous system mediate behavior. Molecular genetic techniques, applied to species such as the common fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, have proven to be an important tool in this research. Large databases of transgenic specimens are being built and need to be analyzed to establish models of neural information processing. In this paper we present an approach for the exploration and analysis of neural circuits based on such a database. We have designed and implemented BrainGazer, a system which integrates visualization techniques for volume data acquired through confocal microscopy as well as annotated anatomical structures with an intuitive approach for accessing the available information. We focus on the ability to visually query the data based on semantic as well as spatial relationships. Additionally, we present visualization techniques for the concurrent depiction of neurobiological volume data and geometric objects which aim to reduce visual clutter. The described system is the result of an ongoing interdisciplinary collaboration between neurobiologists and visualization researchers.

Additional Files and Images

Additional images and videos:
Video Video: Video demonstration of the BrainGazer system (DivX codec)
Additional files:
Paper
Paper




BibTeX

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@article{bruckner-2009-BVQ,
  title =      "BrainGazer - Visual Queries for Neurobiology Research",
  author =     "Stefan Bruckner and Veronika Šolt{\' e}szov{\'a} and
               Meister Eduard Gr{\"o}ller and Ji{\v r}{\' i}
               Hlad{\r u}vka and Katja B{\"u}hler and Jai Yu and Barry
               Dickson",
  year =       "2009",
  abstract =   "Neurobiology investigates how anatomical and physiological
               relationships in the nervous system mediate behavior.
               Molecular genetic techniques, applied to species such as the
               common fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, have proven to be
               an important tool in this research. Large databases of
               transgenic specimens are being built and need to be analyzed
               to establish models of neural information processing. In
               this paper we present an approach for the exploration and
               analysis of neural circuits based on such a database. We
               have designed and implemented BrainGazer, a system which
               integrates visualization techniques for volume data acquired
               through confocal microscopy as well as annotated anatomical
               structures with an intuitive approach for accessing the
               available information. We focus on the ability to visually
               query the data based on semantic as well as spatial
               relationships. Additionally, we present visualization
               techniques for the concurrent depiction of neurobiological
               volume data and geometric objects which aim to reduce visual
               clutter. The described system is the result of an ongoing
               interdisciplinary collaboration between neurobiologists and
               visualization researchers.",
  pages =      "1497--1504",
  month =      nov,
  number =     "6",
  event =      "IEEE Visualization 2009",
  journal =    "IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics",
  volume =     "15",
  location =   "Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA",
  keywords =   "biomedical visualization, neurobiology, visual queries,
               volume visualization",
  URL =        "http://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/research/publications/2009/bruckner-2009-BVQ/",
}